Monthly Archives: January 2016

Science Goals

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Personally, I feel that I need to refresh myself with the science topics tackled in Primary School. Therefore, I have created some SMART targets to complete before placement to ensure that I feel confident while teaching science on my placement.

S – Specific

To refresh my memory on the water cycle. To learn in depth the different stages of the cycle so that I feel comfortable when teaching this to the upper stages as I understand that challenging questions may be asked especially as the children will be curious.

M – Measurable

I want to be able to explain all stages of the water cycle in depth.

A – Achievable

This is something which I feel that I can achieve as it is something that children on my placement may be learning.

R – Relevant

This is relevant because it is part of the curriculum it is in the Plant Earth, Processes of the Earth section of Science Experiences and Outcome (Scottish Government, 2009) My placement is with Primary 7 so they should be able to :

“Apply my knowledge of how water changes state to help me understand the processes involved in the water cycle in nature over time” (Scottish Government (2009) p. 263)

T – Timely

I aim to achieve this goal by placement

 

Reference

Scottish Government (2009) Curriculum for Excellence, Experiences and outcomes for all curriculum areas

Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/all_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539562.pdf

Eportfolios

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I feel that by reading other people’s posts, I develop my understanding of a topic. I am instantly engaged when other people write about their own experiences, particularly when I can relate my own experiences to them. One of my favourite posts is “5,6,7….Dance” (Duncan, 2016) due to having a dance background myself.

Before doing the dance input and reading Lauren’s post, I was less aware of the impact that dance can have on a child’s learning as dance was just something I did because I enjoyed it. Now I am able to relate back to the skills which I have developed due to dance and how they helped me at school. Dancing isn’t just about learning technique. You learn so much more, you gain confidence, teamwork skills, co-ordination and so much more. You learn how to observe your teacher which helps you do the same in class. You become aware of the smallest details which has a massive impact in dance which makes you do the same in classrooms. You look for small details which will help you achieve. Criticism is something which you receive regularly in dancing and it helps you in school. You understand the meaning of criticism, you are only given criticism so that you can improve.

Through reading other people’s work, I am able to think about what they are saying and convey my view. Many posts I agree on their view but sometimes I do not. If I have an opposing view, reading the post allows me to understand the person’s view and sometimes allows me to challenge my own opinion. Reading other people’s post, encourages me to further develop the view they made. If that have made reference to a book or an article, I find myself searching for that article and reading it myself. It also helps me to view a topic from another perspective. If I haven’t completely understood something in a lecture, reading other people’s posts can help with my learning.

Reference

Duncan, L. (2016) 5,6,7….Dance Available at: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/laurenseportfolio/2016/01/19/5-6-7-dance/ (accessed on 22/01/16)

More Science Experiments in Primary Schools

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I feel that science is often a subject which is limited a lot in primary school. You leave primary 7, possibly having only done 2 or 3 experiments a year if that to having science about 3 times a week and getting to do an experiment every week. I used to enjoy science in secondary school. I enjoyed the written part of it anyway, I just wasn’t that interested in the experiment aspect. It just came with too much fear.

“Your hair might catch fire”

“Don’t turn the gas on until you have the flame on a match stick”

The rules worried me. This was made worse when the gas chamber broke half way through a science experiment and we all had to evacuate the building. Of course people started getting dramatic.

“My head hurts”

“I feel sick”

“I’m going to faint”

That was enough for me. I’ll just stick to the theory, well that was my aim. But instead the teachers insisted that I was good at science. I got my Silver crest award and my Go4set. I went to the Big Bang Competition twice and represented my school three times at different chemistry events including a chemistry event at Dundee University when I was in Second Year. Therefore when it came to picking our subjects in third year, many teachers got a shock when I chose Physics and then all other social subjects.

I feel that this fear could have been avoided if I had done more experiments at an early age. I was quite mature when I went to high school and would worry about things such as injuring myself more than I would have in primary school. Primary school children love getting involved and have no fear, which isn’t always a good thing. Many children are visual learners and find it easier to understand things when they see them. Therefore I find science experiments an effective way to do this.

 

My Initial view of maths

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Throughout Primary, Maths was definitely the subject I felt most confident it. However, I did feel that the time spent doing maths was limited. During P6, we decided to try mixing classes to do maths. Six other pupils in my class and I went through to Primary 7 and about 15 Primary 7s went through to my class. The children in the Primary 7 classroom were the children who enjoyed maths most and were also in the top sets. This definitely helped with my enjoyment of maths as I was in an environment where everyone else enjoyed maths. The primary 7 teacher was also very passionate about maths which I felt helped.

During work experience, I saw many teachers teaching maths in a variety of different ways with a variety of different ages and abilities. I noticed that the more enthusiastic the teacher was about maths, the more engaged and interested the children were. I volunteered weekly at my local primary school class, I noticed that some of the children who struggled with Maths were taken away by a fellow teacher for an hour to do some extra maths work. I went along with her one day and notice that they played games and she had a very active approach with them. The children enjoyed this and tried harder. During class activities which involved maths, the children in this group would often sit quietly and be less willing to answer questions compared to when they were in smaller groups.

I read an article in the guardian by Sally Weale where she speaks about following the teaching approach adopted in Shanghai. I disagree with this approach as it is about staying on one aspect of maths until every child has a full understanding. I feel that this would put a lot of pressure on the children who struggle in maths. They go into depth about the matter which although I feel is important, it can often cause confusion for the children who don’t fully understand the work. It could lead to the other children who do understand the work becoming bored as they wait on fellow students to understand the maths. I feel that using this approach occasionally would be beneficial as it may lead to children helping others to develop an understanding of the topic from a different perspective though I feel if this happened too often the children would become bored and less willing to help.

Reference

Weale, S. (2015) Shanghai teaching method ‘could improve UK results within four years’ Available at:http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/26/shanghai-teaching-method-could-improve-uk-results-within-four-years (accessed: 21st January 2016)

Animation

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Tim The Turtle

This is the video that three other students and I created during the animation workshop.

After the workshop, I went straight to work and showed everyone my video. They laughed but admitted that it was good. The following day, I went back home and visited my grandparents. My 10 year old cousin goes to their house on a Wednesday after school so I went and picked her up. Back at my gran’s house, she took off her jacket and instantly sat herself in front of the TV. I showed her the video, slightly unsure of her reaction.

“Wow, did you really do that?” She asked and I nodded. She was intrigued to find out how I did it. I explained it to her and then got my gran’s laptop. I downloaded Pivot for her and she sat for the next 2 hours engaged on the laptop. When she finished she was so proud of her animation and my gran now tells me that this is what she does each time she comes home from school.